Tag: South Korea

Former ROK JCS Ops Chief, Army Lt.Gen, Shin Won-sik said "Moon Admin agreed with the NK's denuke of peninsula plan not the CVID of NK that SK can withdraw of USFK in favor of NK(DPRK) as soon as this summer." #CFC #JCS #USFK #DPRK #MOON #Trump https://t.co/WxEQSFfKGN

— Dong Yon Kim/김동연 기자 (@dongyonews) January 7, 2019

In response to Japan’s video about the claimed use of a fire control radar against a patrol plane, the ROK Ministry Defense has now released their own video disputing the claims:

The first criticism in the video is that the Japanese aircraft flew at a low and threatening altitude. Here is a screen capture from the ROK perspective of the patrol plane. Does this look like a threatening aircraft?:

The next claim is that Japan is wrong about being in compliance with international law. The ROK video shows that the altitude and distance level the Japanese aircraft maintained was applicable only to civil aircraft according to international law:

This actually discredits Korea’s criticism because then the Japanese patrol aircraft could then fly at whatever altitude it wanted if there is no international standard military aircraft are held to. If there was a military standard between the ROK and Japan I would think they would have included it in the video.

The next claim in the video is that the Korean ship did not use its fire control radar against the Japanese plane. The video says the ship only had its search radar on. To counter the Japanese claim of the use of a fire control radar the video focuses on the fact that no guns from the ship were pointed at the aircraft. This is a completely separate issue that the Japanese side has never claimed. The issue was the use of the fire control radar.

The video also asks that if the fire control radar was used why didn’t the plane use emergency measures to escape. Watching the Japanese video it is clear the crew knew no weapons were pointed at them and thus likely did not feel threatened by the Korean ship.

The next claim is that the Japanese radio communications were unclear. The video had just one short snippet of audio which was unclear. However, there was much more broadcasts by the Japanese plane. I can understand though how trying to understand English spoken with a Japanese accident over a radio could be difficult for the crew on the ROK ship to understand.

Regardless the whole radio issue is really not important compared to the fire control radar issue. The ROK video concludes demanding that the Japanese release their radar data. The technology that nation’s use to collect radar frequency data is sensitive information that I would be surprised is released. However supposedly the Japanese are now considering it:

The South Korean video is “awful,” a senior Defense Ministry official said, adding, “We have to keep rebutting.”
The official noted that the South Korean video did not include radio messages sent by the Japanese patrol plane to the South Korean destroyer, which had been on the Japanese video.
Depending on the responses of South Korea, Tokyo is considering releasing radar wavelength data, usually a military secret, as additional evidence for its claim, sources familiar with the situation said.
Frustration is growing among an increasing number of Japanese government officials at South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s failure to act to resolve tensions over the incident.

Japan Times

Overall in my opinion the ROK video is not convincing, but will likely serve well for the domestic audience in Korea. Does anyone else have any other opinions on the ROK video?

Finally what is really amazing about this whole issue is that between most other countries this would likely be resolved internally between defense ministries instead of being fought over on Youtube. However, as we have seen with so many issues between ROK and Japan domestic politics get involved. As I have said repeatedly the Chinese and the North Koreans are loving this.

This could get ugly very quickly if the South Korean government decides to forcibly seize assets from Japanese companies to pay for these court rulings:

South Korean victims of forced labor during Japan’s colonial rule have begun taking steps to seize the assets held in South Korea by a Japanese firm implicated in the Japan’s wartime crime. 

The lawyers for Lee Chun-sik and three other South Koreans forced to work for Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal Corporation recently asked a local court in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province to issue a writ of execution to have the company’s assets in the country seized. 

The company reportedly holds eleven billion won worth stocks of PNR, a joint venture with POSCO. 

In late October, South Korea’s Supreme Court had ordered the Japanese firm to compensate the four victims 100 million won each. 

Following the top court’s decision, the victims’ lawyers requested that the company answer how it will compensate, but has yet to give a reply.

KBS World Radio

The major issue here is that the Japanese government says that all compensation claims were paid for with the 1965 pact that saw $500 million from Japan given to South Korea. The ROK government at the time could have compensated everyone back then with that money, however it was instead used for the overall development of the country such as improving infrastructure.  

The money ultimately helped with the country’s economic development at the expense of direct compensation to those effected by Japan’s colonial rule.  This is why Japan is so strongly against the court rulings they feel they have already paid compensation for.

With that all said when is the ROK government going to launch lawsuits on behalf of victims of North Korea’s kidnappings and provocations in far more recent times than Japan’s colonial rule that began over a century ago?

Here is the latest on the Moon administration’s growing “blacklist” scandal:

The opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) urged the Blue House on Thursday to respond to suspicions that it compiled a blacklist of executives at public organizations affiliated with the Environment Ministry early this year, the latest in two weeks of revelations about illegal surveillance by President Moon Jae-in and his top aides. 

The LKP initially raised the blacklist allegation on Wednesday in a press briefing, while revealing to local reporters a document leaked by an anonymous former member of the Blue House special inspection bureau. The member claimed that his team specifically ordered the Environment Ministry to draft the report, which the ministry submitted last January. (………)

On Wednesday, the LKP revealed to reporters a document that was roughly entitled, “The trend of resignation of executives at organizations affiliated with the Environment Ministry.” Below that was a subtitle that read, “The status of resignation of executives at eight public organizations under the Environment Ministry.” A short summary of the report explicitly stated that “resignation procedures were proceeding without any particular disturbance or backlash except in the Korea Environment Corporation.” 

A total of 24 executives of those eight organizations were listed in the report, profiling their affiliation, job rank, name, term and “status quo.” Among those figures, 14 were said to have submitted resignations and three were said to have been planning to.

Former LKP Rep. Kim Yong-nam, who is a member of a committee within the conservative party looking into the whistle-blowing scandal, said during Wednesday’s press conference that the former Blue House special inspection bureau member who provided the document said he personally received the report around Jan. 15 from a high-ranking official in the Environment Ministry. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

This environmental blacklist reminds me some what of what the Moon administration did to consolidate control over public media broadcasters. They pressured executives to resign by having union thugs harass and threaten them. Once the executives resigned they were replaced by the Moon administration with left wing advocates.

In this case it appears they pressured government employees within the Environmental Ministry to resign in order to put in place employees that shared left wing values.

What is driving the criticism of the blacklist is that the Moon administration put the Chief of Staff of the prior Park administration Kim Ki-choon in jail for three years for running a so called “cultural blacklist” that prevented left wing affiliated artists from getting government funding. What he did is arguably not as bad as what is alleged here where people were actually forced out of their jobs.

It looks like the prisons in South Korea will soon be staffed with Jehovah’s Witnesses and other religions that forbid military service:

Able-bodied men who refuse to serve in the military for religious reasons will be subject to three years of alternative duty at correctional facilities, the Ministry of Defense said Friday.

In its draft guideline for revision of the conscription law, the ministry also said alternative duty will become possible in January 2020.

The move comes after the Supreme Court’s ruling in June that religious faith is a valid reason to refuse military service and the law should be amended accordingly. 

The decision triggered a dispute over where, and for how long, the conscientious objectors should serve their alternative duty, so other conscripts, many of them serving the country under harsh conditions, do not feel left out emotionally.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

I think it is becoming very clear that if the ROK government does not pay more for the upkeep of the US-ROK alliance that it would not be surprising to see a reduction of troops in South Korea within the next two years or the removal of dependents to save money:

 South Korean and U.S. officials had significantly narrowed differences in recent negotiations over how to share the upkeep costs for American troops stationed here, but the working-level progress fell apart as the U.S. leadership rejected it, sources said Tuesday.
Seoul and Washington have held a series of talks since March over how much financial cost South Korea should bear for 28,500 troops of U.S. Forces Korea amid U.S. President Donald Trump’s call for a sharp rise in Seoul’s share.
Earlier this month, the two sides tried to reach a final deal on the issue during the 10th round of negotiations held in Seoul and narrowed differences to a gap of about 100 billion won, but the progress fell through as the U.S. leadership opposed the idea.
A government source said, “We are nearly back to square one.”
The two couldn’t even schedule the timing of the next round of meetings, as both apparently needed time for policy coordination and consultation within their own governments.

Yonhap

President Trump has apparently linked the reboot of cost sharing talks to the decision to replace Defense Secretary James Mattis:

On Monday, he wrote on Twitter that, “We are substantially subsidizing the Militaries of many VERY rich countries all over the world, while at the same time these countries take total advantage of the U.S., and our TAXPAYERS, on Trade. General Mattis did not see this as a problem. I DO, and it is being fixed!”
Although he didn’t pinpoint South Korea, it is understood that he directed the comment at Seoul, with which the U.S. is currently negotiating over defense costs.

You can read more at the link.

I wonder when the horrible air quality is going to begin to have an effect on South Korea’s life expectancy?  So far it appears it is not having much effect considering that the average life expectancy in Korea continues to climb:

Life expectancy at birth averaged 82.7 years in 2017, three months longer than a year earlier, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea.

The average life expectancy for South Koreans stood at 62.3 years in 1970 when South Korea began to compile relevant data.

Kim Rak-hyeon, a deputy director handling the issue at Statistics Korea, said improved public awareness of health and the policy on medical checkups have contributed to the dramatic hike in life expectancy in recent decades.

Baby boys and girls born in 2017 were expected to live 79.7 years and 85.7 years, respectively, with the male-female difference narrowing by one month to 6 years.

The Kim regime keeps telling the Moon administration that it is time to forget the international community and just go ahead and break sanctions:

A senior North Korean official called on the two Koreas on Wednesday to go their own way without being swayed by outside influence in pushing for an ambitious inter-Korean project to modernize and reconnect railways and roads over their border. 
Kim Yun-hyok, the North’s vice railway minister, made the remarks at the project’s groundbreaking ceremony that the two Koreas jointly staged at Panmun Station in the North’s border town of Kaesong. 
“It is time to firm up our determination until we can hear the strong sound of a ‘reunification whistle’ and go forward without vacillation in the face of headwinds,” Kim said.
“Whether to make an achievement in the North-South railway and road project depends on our people’s determination and willingness. A unified federation that Korean people want cannot be realized ever if we mind how others think,” he added.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.